Poly(alkylene carbonate)polyol is an easily biodegradable polymer, and is useful as, for example, an adhesive, a packaging material, or a coating material. Methods for producing poly(alkylene carbonate)polyol from an epoxide compound and carbon dioxide are highly eco-friendly in that phosgene which is harmful compound is not used, and carbon dioxide is able to be cheaply obtained.
Since 1960's, many researchers have developed various types of catalysts to produce poly(alkylene carbonate)polyol from the epoxide compound and the carbon dioxide. Recently, a highly active and highly selective catalyst synthesized from a Salen ([H2Salen=N,N′-bis(3,5-dialkylsalicylidene)-1,2-ethylenediamine] type ligand including a quaternary ammonium salt has been developed (Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0853358). The previously reported catalyst is capable of producing a copolymer showing high activity and high selectivity and having a high molecular weight, and is possible to be polymerized even at high temperature, which is applicable to a commercial process. In addition, the catalyst includes the quaternary ammonium salt in the ligand, and therefore, after a carbon dioxide/epoxide copolymerization reaction, the catalyst is able to be easily separated from the copolymer, and is reusable.
Meanwhile, double metal cyanide (DMC) catalysts are used in producing a plurality of polymer products including polyether, polyester, and polyetherester polyol.
The double metal cyanide (DMC) catalysts are generally produced by reacting a metal salt aqueous solution and a metal cyanide salt aqueous solution in the presence of an organic complex ligand, for example, ether. However, in the case of the double metal cyanide (DMC) catalyst produced by the reaction above, since the metal salt aqueous solution has significantly low solubility to an organic solvent, the catalyst is produced using H2O and then, is washed with the organic solvent several times, which causes inconvenience. In addition, since it is difficult to control a content of water or alcohol included in the catalyst, there is a disadvantage in that activities are largely different for each batch of the catalyst, and thus, commercial use of the catalyst has been limited.